Revisiting G2 Barbarossa

There are only 13 places to put a Russian infantry that can make Moscow in time to defend against a G6 attack. 14 for a G7 attack. Default League Bid rules state you can only place a unit where a unit of the same Power already exists.

Most people use the Bid to save half the UK navy, invest in the Med, help defend China and knock Italy out of Africa. By doing so it frees up Allied units faster to get to Russia to help defend Moscow and put pressure on Germany at the Atlantic Wall to force Germany to spend needed resources defending there.

The Romanian Rush allows the Germans to get the most they can by G6 to Moscow. A standard G3 provides the most firepower possible for a G7 attack, but gives the Allies one more Turn to get UK air units to Moscow.

A standard Moscow defense has 70+ infantry plus 10+ Allied fighters (non-Russian) by the time the Germans’ get there making an attack on Moscow a low odds affair. Turtling Moscow and then draining their money for a future capture is more standard of the Axis strategy.

@kyle47 said in Revisiting G2 Barbarossa:

We are just playing friendly home games, no bids. Although, we have considered implementing bids in the future, we have yet to do so. I think my play group would LOVE that type of bid. They are getting tired of losing

The Axis are heavily favored in Global 1940 OOB. With no Bid, with equal Players, the Axis should win 90% of the time.

@kyle47

:+1:

@Radar

The Soviets are losing at least 10 IPCs (maybe 15) unless Germany does the Napoleon thing and march in one column at Moscow.

As mentioned, without a bid the Soviets are not holding any original Axis territories.

@kyle47

Thank you!

Hopefully the AI Japan will put enough pressure on Calcutta to allow me to swoop for the kill.

@kyle47

:+1: :+1:

@SuperbattleshipYamato said in Revisiting G2 Barbarossa:

@MarshmallowofWar

The aircraft in Poland and Slovakia Hungary cannot reach any ships, so they’ll have to attack Paris.

Respectfully, I disagree. It’s better for those aircraft to sit idle and be positioned for use on G2 during non-combat on G1 than to be risked unnecessarily to antiaircraft fire. It would actually be better under this scenario for Germany to take an extra tank to boost the odds of the battle in France – its absence won’t make a huge difference on G2.

Marsh

@MarshmallowofWar

Wasn’t thinking of G2, so I’ll just defer to you on those points.

What would be your plan for those aircraft though? From Western Germany they can attack Baltic States, Eastern Poland, or Bessarabia next turn.

@SuperbattleshipYamato On G1 I wouldn’t use them at all, but one of them would probably fly to Southern Italy to deter a weak Taranto attack (or take advantage of it!).

Otherwise, I would wait for the non-combat movement phase on G1 to position them for use on G2. Where would depend on where they are needed – perhaps some UK fleet survived and needs mopping up, or perhaps there is a potential opportunity to use them against Russian forces if Russia does not retreat on R1.

I just don’t believe they should be exposed to AA fire unnecessarily.

Marsh

@MarshmallowofWar

I don’t think so too, though for different reasons.

I have this weird “preference” where if there’s a AAA in a territory, if you attack with aircraft it has to be the exact amount the AAA can attack, no more, no less. Either that or I attack without aircraft. So if a territory has 2 AAA I only attack with 6 aircraft or none, not 7, not 5.

This prevents German aircraft supporting a Sealion most of the time (very hard to have 15 planes in range of London), and limits the Japanese aircraft available to support an attack on Amur, in case the Soviets went full stack.

Anyways, back to the topic.

One AAA in Paris means I need 3 aircraft to attack. This necessitates using the tactical bomber from Berlin as well.

Only problem is that it makes a sea zone 110 attack weaker when you really need every air and sea unit within range to destroy the British fleet, even when they scramble.

So often I just don’t use them (maybe the fighter in Slovakia Hungary attacks Southern France in case the Germans go after it). There’s enough ground units to force 99% chance of victory especially if you don’t attack Normandy Bordeaux.

I thank you for giving me some ideas for what to do with those eastern planes.

@kyle47

If you remember, I said how I was going to play a game where the Allies were the Hard AI and the Japanese and the Italians were the Fast AI. Due to the Fast AI’s incompetence (especially regarding Japan, what is in my opinion the most difficult nation to play), I had to carry the whole Axis as Germany by myself, and the first time I tried I failed.

Using your strategy, I was able to achieve great success.

Everything went as planned. I was able to continuously push at the Soviets starting from turn 2, and even though the Soviets captured Finland and Norway, they lost 15 units available to defend Moscow (they were hanging around Scandinavia), and in the end just increased the income I would take when sacking Moscow.

I had two army groups, Army Group North and Army Group Center. A smaller formation in the south was tasked with securing the southern flank, protecting Romania and pushing forward once the Soviets retreated from those areas.

Army Group North moved into the Baltic States, and Army Group Center moved into Eastern Poland at the opening of Barbarossa.

Calculating my troops could sustain it (the huge Soviet stack in Leningrad moved northward to attack Finland as previously mentioned), Army Group North moved into Belarus and Army Group Center into Western Ukraine on turn 3, and consolidated into Bryansk on turn 4.

The Soviets scraped together as many units as they could into Moscow but they couldn’t stop my army (now reinforced with those 10 tanks I bought on turn 2 along with all the tank forces I had at the start of the game that wer still alive), and I sacked Moscow, all my tanks still intact, on turn 5.

This was critical for an Axis win, because, as expected, Japan and Italy were completely ineffective (Japan never got close to fully capturing China, not even by turn 10), and the siphoning of Western Allied resources to deal with Germany allowed Japan to stay in the game as a thorn in the Allies’ side until the end.

The Allies put up a fierce response, ferociously fighting in the Middle East and in the landings against Europe, but were eventually broken by German armies.

Shout out to Italy, who, while totally useless in Africa, did a good job helping me protect Western Europe.

The remainder of the game after the fall of Moscow for Germany consisted of two main operations:

Mopping up operations in the remaining Soviet territories and pushing down southward into the Middle East to get Egypt and the final victory city and retaking Scandinavia from a weak Soviet army.

Breaking up the Allied attacks on Western Europe.

A huge boon came when the Allies declared war on the strict neutrals, and attacks on them tied up 10-20 units.

The Japanese just did whatever at this point, it didn’t really matter.

Long story short, Egypt was captured. I was actually ready to conduct a Sealion for next turn in case Egypt didn’t fall.

The game file (sorry it’s 2.6 prerelease, you’ll have to download it):

2023-9-24-World-War-II-Global-1940-2nd-Edition.tsvg

So yeah, great G2 strategy. I might adopt this as my default move if I’m doing a J1.